


What Remains

by HannaM



Category: Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 07:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4253931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaM/pseuds/HannaM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raymond is no more. Lucius can leave Raven, live a long and happy life as he chooses. </p><p>Infuriatingly, what Lucius chooses is to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Remains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panny/gifts).



Sometimes, when the fighting's done for the day and Raven turns around to see Lucius smiling at him, he wonders who he is now.  
  
He's no noble child for Lucius to fuss over, that's certain. Not that telling Lucius that will make him stop. Lucius is as devoted as a puppy to its master, and about as foolish. Perhaps that's why it stings a little when Raven yells at him, though it's for his own good. The wounded look in his eyes…  
  
Raymond would have apologized, haunted by those eyes. Hurting Lucius is about as satisfying as hurting gentle little Priscilla.  
  
Raven shouldn't feel sorry. His quest is his own, and Lucius' service to him ended when House Cornwall was dissolved. Raymond is no more. Lucius can leave Raven, live a long and happy life as he chooses.  
  
Infuriatingly, what Lucius chooses is to stay.  
  
Raven doubts that Lucius is only staying for his sake. He seems to be familiar with the tactician Eliwood and Hector have hired. Raven even sees Lucius conversing with that shrill pink-haired cleric once or twice.  
  
Lucius is no stranger to the battlefield these days, which is what makes it particularly odd that he keeps rushing to the front lines, where Raven belongs, not him.  
  
"Do you wish to die?" he snarls at Lucius, after diving in the path of a berserker whose eyes had been set on him. "Get back where they can't attack you directly!"  
  
"I'm not helpless, Lord Raymond," Lucius returns. "And this is where Mark instructed me to go. Watch out!"  
  
The berserker charges, his blade slamming into Raven before he can think. He retaliates, of course, but his attention is sufficiently compromised, and he only wounds the enemy. "Damn you!"  
  
Lucius seizes Raven's arm (when did he get so bold?) and drags him back. Raven opens his mouth to ask what in blazes he's doing, but then Lucius puts his hands together and closes his eyes, and even though Raymond never had the aptitude for magic that his sister did, Raven feels Lucius' power rising.  
  
Light magic crashes into the enemy, decimating him on the spot.  
  
Raven stares at Lucius, who is already glancing back at their tactician for his orders.  
  
Perhaps Raven doesn't know Lucius any more than Lucius knows Raven.  
  
This much is certain: Lucius is stubborn. He runs from Raven's side to take a blow meant for Priscilla, Raymond's sister. Priscilla heals him, and looks for Raven, but Raven is watching Lucius move into the trees, as though death does not frighten him. Priscilla, at least, is cautious and not without protectors.  
  
He doesn't know what he would do if he had to watch Lucius die.  
  
Raven goes after him.  
  
"There's no need for you to protect me," he says brusquely, when Lucius catches sight of him. "Don't think you're doing me any service by staying here. Leave this army. Find your own way."  
  
"Do you still intend to avenge House Cornwall?" Lucius asks.  
  
"Even if it be with my dying breath. Must you ask me pointless questions?"  
  
Lucius' eyes narrow. "They are not pointless questions, but it is a pointless vengeance, yes! As you well know, just as you know I have no intention of leaving. You too deserve happiness, Lord Raymond."  
  
"How would you know?!" Raven wants to lash out with everything in him, wants to destroy everything around them until there's nothing left but him and Lucius. Maybe then Lucius will understand. Or maybe then Lucius will finally run from his darkness and leave him to his purpose.  
  
"Because, Lord Raymond, it seems that now I know you better than you know yourself."  
  
Raven turns to walk away, but Lucius seizes his arm. "You've always been unkind from time to time, but I have known true cruelty and it is not in you."  
  
"Silence!" Raven is not shaking.  
  
"Why do you pretend? Why do you come to me only to push me away?"  
  
He has no answers, not for Lucius, and not for himself.  
  
Lucius moves closer, his hand no longer so tight on Raven's arm. Raven knows he could pull out of Lucius' grip easily now, and walk away without a word. Lucius might even let him do it.  
  
Lucius' hand feels hot, even with the fabric of Raven's jacket between it and Raven's bare skin.  
  
Raymond is afraid.  
  
Raven was born of hatred and anguish, the last resort of a desperate man who saw no future for himself. He believed that if he made himself hard and cold he would not have to suffer such losses again, not have to feel the things that Raymond of House Cornwall could not bear.  
  
And yet when Raven sees Lucius in pain, convulsing and staggering, Raven's breath stops and his blood pounds in his ears with dread that only eases when Lucius is well again.  
  
Lucius was often sick, this Raymond well remembers. But he cannot help noticing that Lucius seems more prone to illness when Raven's darkness threatens to engulf him, more pale and wan when Raven spits his bitterest thoughts at his only real friend.  
  
Being Raven is exhausting.  
  
"It frightens me when you rush into danger," Raymond admits, quietly, when they are alone one night. For a moment he thinks Lucius has not heard him.  
  
"I feel the same, my lord." Lucius appears to be still reading his book, but he does not turn the page.  
  
"I hate seeing you injured. But I should not have blamed you for my feelings." Raymond closes his eyes, feels the grass between his fingers, smells the cool night air. "I truly am sorry."  
  
"Lord Raymond?"  
  
He hears the rustle of Lucius' robes, feels Lucius moving to sit beside him. Something brushes against his shoulder. When he opens his eyes, he sees it is Lucius' long blond hair. A little mussed from all this fighting and travel, but still luminous by moonlight.  
  
Just like the rest of Lucius.  
  
Lucius' fair brow creases. "Are you well?" Before Raymond can respond, Lucius' hand is on his face, touching his cheek.  
  
When one fights battles with tomes and staves instead of swords and axes, it seems one's hands remain soft and un-calloused.  
  
"If I am warm," Raymond murmurs, "it is not because I am unwell."  
  
Difficult to say by this light, but he thinks he sees color creep into Lucius' face. "I-I… Lord Raymond…"  
  
"But I think you know it. As you have always known me, Lucius." Lucius' eyes widen as Raymond leans in, but not for long. There is no hesitance in Lucius, no uncertainty in his hands as they grip Raymond's jacket and the back of his head.  
  
Lucius' mouth is as soft as his hands, and this, Raven thinks, may be where a future begins.


End file.
